Gilmore: I’m the cyber-crime tsar

TÁnaiste eamon gilmore has agreed to take responsibility to present the coordinated Government response to the ongoing investigation into the large-scale data breach at the Ennis-based Loyaltybuild.

The subject was raised in the Dáil this morning by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who accused the coalition of demonstrating a ‘lack of urgency’ in its response to the issue.

Both the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and gardaí are investigating the breach at Loyaltybuild. Full card details of over 376,ooo people were taken by hackers, including those of some 70,000 Supervalu Getaway customers and more than 8,000 AXA Leisure Break customers.

Martin said that neither the Justice Minister or the Communications Minister had taken “full possession” of the issue, and asked that the Government appoint someone to take responsibility in the area.

He said it was likely the full scale of the problem had “yet to be uncovered in public” and that there was a danger the incident would ”shatter people’s confidence” in online payments.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin [Image: Oireachtas TV]

Responding, Eamon Gilmore went over the latest figures from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, and said that both the ODPC and the gardaí were continuing with their investigations.

“Customers should be vigilant and report any suspicious transactions to their credit card company,” Gilmore said.

He said that once the Data Protection Commissioner’s report had been handed in to the Minister for Justice, the Government would take “whatever steps are necessary”.

Back on his feet, Martin said there had been no indication of any urgency over the issue from Gilmore’s response. He called again for a minister to “take possession” of the problem, following what he described as a “massive criminal event”.

Gilmore said there were a “number of Government departments” which would receive reports on the investigation, which was being taken “very seriously and urgently”.

“I will take responsibility to coordinate the response from various Government ministers,” the Tánaiste said.